Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Images at the Buggy Barn

What a nice afternoon for a 2 hr drive! The weather was nice, a little warm and not too many people, until you went inside to try to buy something that is! So Earl and I wandered around admiring the quilts and picking out our favorites. The quilts were glorious, but I adore old barns too and the road to Reardon is full of them and wheatfields galore.

We wandered around for about an hour and a half while I snapped my fill of pictures, I didn't buy a thing, mostly because it was VERY crowded in both shops and I have no patience for crowds...however, I did get to peruse the patterns and realized how nice it is to actually hold a book that I have been coveting online and look at the pages and then at the price, sigh and gently place the desired book back on the shelf for another time...most likely AFTER I have won the lottery!

I did something "quilty" today!!

First of all, I auditioned backgrounds for my Dresden Plate in progress and then I pressed a few of the spokes...but best of all, I went to the Buggy Barn Quilt Show in Reardon, WA! My gracious husband went along with me, he took a bashing on Facebook, but he is the best! That, and it was a nice time alone in the car just talking and enjoying the golden silence of just Mom & Dad time. I love you Earl, you rock!!

Not feeling very creative these days...

A lovely barn in Bozeman, MT

I just realized that you all have already seen this picture!

But the bride to the left is a wedding I photographed last summer

Maybe it's from too much overtime, maybe it's letdown from vacation, just maybe I have been reading everyone else's blogs and need to be sitting at my sewing machine instead! There are SO many creative people on these blogs, awesome quilts, amazing photos and the inspiration...well, that's phenomenal too. Sooooo, what's my problem?! Not really sure, but I'm not giving up just yet, it's just a phase, things will work themselves out and I will be back on the road to creativity in no time flat, for instance...On Saturday, I am traveling to the Buggy Barn, to see more wonderful quilts, I can't wait! Sue Spargo is giving a class and so is Lynda Hall...what I wouldn't give to be taking a class from either or both of them!!! Who knows, maybe I will come home and get to work! I guess we'll see, stay tuned...

OT

I've been doing a fair amount of overtime in the past 3 months...has it really been 3 months?! OMG, pretty much my entire summer and I realize now, that most of the summer has passed me by. My intention was to do enough to buy the kids season tickets to White Pass for skiing this winter and then...not sure what happened, but I think it went towards paying off a bill. The next month came and well, this time it will go for vacation so that we can do school shopping while in Lincoln City and have a really nice, carefree time on the coast, and then...the compressor went t/u on the a/c in the middle of triple digit heat (of course!) It's funny how you start out with great aspirations of what the $$ will go for and in the end, it just seems to go for the usual things, I wonder why that is? It's not that I resent putting the extra hours, that's not it at all...I just always am amazed at how fast the $$ goes to everything EXCEPT for what it was intended for.

But, we DID have a nice vacation at the ocean and we DID have a nice trip to Montana and I DID get some good pictures of Ryan for his senior pictures and for the yearbook, so I guess despite the 100 some extra hours of work I put in, the summer wasn't a total bust...

and OMG, but school starts on Tuesday of next week, that's a week from today! And my oldest son Ryan will be a senior, a SENIOR...OMG a SENIOR! I'm NOT prepared for this, I'm sure! Before I know it, June will be upon us and Ryan will be graduating, when it seemed like just yesterday, he was this 8lb 6oz beautiful baby boy that I came forth from my body after almost 9 hrs of labor and 2 hrs of pushing, (and not one bit of pain medication I might proudly add) the same baby boy that was blue and had to be smacked on both heels by the doctor before he would breath on his own...and now, he's a senior in highschool...that just blows me away!

I know that life will pass you by in an instant and my hope is that I won't waste a single moment. But now I am totally off subject and realize that I should just leave it at that...but first, here are some pictures of my beautiful baby boy now....

On the Road Again

We're back home again, having been in Lincoln City for the past 4 days. The ocean was so peaceful and as relaxing (well, as relaxing as sharing a cottage at the Ester Lee with your husband, 2 boys and 2 dogs can be). The weather for the first two and a half days was spectacular, sunny, mid seventies with beautiful sunsets....it ended in a drizzle, but it was way better than 104 in the shade!

Sunday morning we were up at the crack of dawn to make sure that Ryan got up in time to leave for Newport for his halibut fishing excursion. We snuggled back, deep in the covers and were drifting back to sleep, when the phone rang...my eyes snapped open, fearing the worst, as any mother might imagine as her 17 year old takes off on an adventure on his own. Well okay, so Ryan hadn't wrapped his car around a tree or ran off a cliff into the ocean and he had made it safely to the Tradewinds Charters...he was calling to apologetically (profusely, I might add) tell us that he had also discovered that the keys to the Endeavor were safely stowed in his pocket instead of on the counter at the hotel! Logically, one might just say, no problem we've got a spare and will head down to Newport to pick it up when we get up and enjoy a nice leisurely breakfast...hah!! But no...we don't have a spare set of keys and Newport is a 25 minute cab ride away...a $50 one way cab ride away!

Thankfully, the keys were at the front desk of the charter company and thankfully, the cabbie took pity and only charged Jay one way...but it still cost $50 and it still made our morning much more frantic (we had also promised Tanner that he could go salmon fishing at 12:30 in Depot Bay), but alas, we got the keys, Jay made it back to the cottage and Tanner made it to his fishing adventure on time (looking a bit apprehensive as the boat pulled away from the dock) So, Jay and I having the whole day ahead of us, look at each other and wonder, "what should we do with ourselves today?" Hah again! Just as we were heading into Lincoln City to enjoy ourselves, Ryan called to say that the boat had limited out and was heading back in and yes he caught a halibut (all 28" of it...not the monster I was hoping for, but it will make a couple of nice meals)

Screech! turn the bus around...we are Newport bound, to snap some pics of the mighty fisherman and his prize before it is filleted and vacuum sealed for posterity. Having done that, it's back to the cottage to place the prized fish in the freezer to enjoy later, relax a bit, hear about the adventure and wait for Tanner's call. About an hour later, we got just that and once again, pointed the wagon south, this time towards Depot Bay. We arrive, the cell phone rings again...maybe, we're not on the way back just yet...(the skipper wants to limit everybody out and Tanner has landed his just yet) an hour and a half later, some silly pictures of Jay and Ryan while we wait and lo an behold, in comes the Season w/PC Tuna on board...snap, snap, snap of the weary angler and we are off to Newport to p/u Ryan's car...I was so happy to make it back to the cottage and get out of the car that I almost kissed the blacktop!!

So, I didn't get my relaxing day alone w/my hubby...I suppose those days are yet to come and I can't wait.. but I am reminded that Ryan is testing his wings and this being his senior year, he will soon be doing his own thing, so I need to cherish the time and the testosterone that surrounds me constantly...